Don’t Worry. Help Is On The Way!

Mon, 11/19/2007 - 3:15pm by John J. Madonna

Help! never gets a fair shake. As a Beatle movie, A Hard Day's Night completely outshines it. While undoubtedly the inferior film, Help! certainly has merit. As a Beatle record, Help! finds itself eclipsed over by 1965’s Rubber Soul, with critics pointing to Soul as The Beatles’ turning point to more artistic endeavors, overlooking Beatles For Sale in ’64 and Help! earlier ’65, both featuring darker lyrics and more diverse musical influences. The movie, though, has only been available on VHS until last week, when Apple Corps released a brand new DVD package. Basically I could not be more excited.

As I said, A Hard Day's Night, Help! is not. The comedy doesn’t always click; the very British plot (read: plot is borderline offensive to non-Western cultures) would basically cause a huge moral outcry if released today, but the music makes the movie. Honestly, Help! beats out Abbey Road or Sgt. Pepper's as my favorite Beatles record. On the unimpeachable first side, all movie songs, Lennon contributes “Help,” “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away,” “You’re Going To Lose That Girl,” three songs about loneliness and heartache; George records “I Need You,” his first composition since ’63 and a wonderful torch song as good as anything else on the record; “The Night Before” features Paul’s most forceful vocals since “Long Tall Sally.” “Ticket To Ride” finishes the first half. On the flip side, we have another great George composition, Ringo’s misunderstood and charming country cover of “Act Naturally,” two amazing folk songs by Paul, “Yesterday” and “I’ve Just Seen A Face”—the best two minutes The Beatles ever waxed—before the rocking Larry Williams closer, “Dizzy Miss Lizzy.”

I can’t believe that Help! actually was criticized for featuring non-original songs. From 1963-1964 the band released four albums, two feature length movies, an EP, and fourteen non-album tracks, all between their constant touring and TV spots. In ’65, they released a fourteen track LP with two covers on it, and the critics wanted more. Today, bands or artists usually wait years between album releases, never release non-album singles, and only tour to support albums. In a conversation with one of the gentleman at PJ’s Records, an admitted Deadhead, he told me his outlook on bands—I’m paraphrasing/removing profanity—“If you’re not going to tour until you drop dead what good are you?”

Please note, though, that the entire album is a ripoff of the Rutle album Ouch! from the same year.